A 48 MW wind farm Podvelezje near Mostar has been officially commissioned by Bosnian power utility EPBiH and the facility entered trial operation in mid- January. The Executive Director for production at EPBiH Samir Selimovic said that the annual production of about 130 GWh of electricity is expected. According to him, the construction of this wind farm has made a big step towards preserving the environment. For the production of 130 GWh of electricity, it would be necessary to consume 130,000 tons of coal, which needs to be excavated, transported, delivered to thermal power plants and burned to get the same amount of electricity. EPBiH’s General Director Admir Andelija reminded that this is the first wind farm built by the company, in which some 62 million euros was invested.
Last June, EPBiH announced that the first of 15 foundations for wind turbines at its Podvelezje wind farm project has been completed, adding that the concreting of all 15 foundations for wind turbines will be completed by the end of August. The first turbine was installed in October. The construction of the first wind farm in company’s portfolio started in early May. The contractor for the construction of the wind farm is a consortium of Croatian subsidiary of Siemens Games and Danish Wind Power. The project for the construction of Podvelezje wind farms envisages that the future power plant will have installed capacity of 48 MW and annual generation of up to 130 GWh of electricity. This will be the first state-owned wind farm build in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the biggest post-war investment by EPBiH. The initial estimate was that the project should be finished by the end of 2019 and it will be operated under the 30-years concession contract, with an extension option. The value of the investment is estimated at 82 million euros and the funding will be provided through a loan by the German KfW Bank. Last year, project’s manager Semir Nurkovic said that EPBiH expects to commission the wind farm in February 2021.
